How To-sday

Welcome to the inaugural installment of my first regularly scheduled feature: How To-sday.

Today's topic: How To Have Fun With an Emergent Reader 

1. Buy your little learner a joke book or pick one up at the local library.  The small, paperback kind works best so they can carry them everywhere.

2. Ask him or her to read them to you at various times during the day.  If there is a cooking section, have them read you the chef jokes while making lunch.  Perhaps they will perch on the potty and read you the bathroom jokes while you use the shower.  Chances are you won't have to ask.  They will probably just follow you to the loo while walking and reading.  Chances are, if there is a section of napping jokes they will find you with your feverish eyes tightly closed and poke you with the book until you acknowledge the joke and give up at least the hint of a laugh.

(Here comes the fun part.)

3. Being an "emergent" reader will present many opportunities for excitement and problem solving.  See, the little buggers will probably get some of the words wrong in either the joke, the punch line, or both.  I conservatively estimate that 1/3 of the jokes will make no sense because of incorrect phonetic decoding.  Try and guess what the joke was supposed to be. 

4.  Then go back to the text with the child and help them find their error(s).  You wouldn't believe how funny they find the actual jokes after having pretended to get the faulty jokes.  My little monkey was rolling on the floor!

5.  Go ahead and laugh at Junior.  The jokes provide the perfect cover!

(And if laughter really IS the best medicine, then I should be over this little bout of influenza in no time!)